The Damsel in Distress Vs. The Sex Object - Assessing the Evolution of Fantasy in Pinup Art

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Why did the classic pinup portray the classic damsel in distress and why do neo-pinups refrain from this role?
Contrasting classic pinups with neo-pinups one factor really stands out: The classic pinup is, many a time, a damsel in distress, while the neo-pinup is usually just posing. What can be learned about the evolution of role of fantasy, in pinup art?

Who’s the Target Audience?
I quote a comment from Ephemera (a blog dedicated to the appreciation of ephemera), made by a retro art dealer:

“An interesting observation of mine is that women tend to buy more pin-up art then men.”

As a pinup artist, I’ve also noticed the majority of my clients are female. It wasn’t always like this. In the past, even fully covered pinups with a little garter showing, was deemed pornographic. These pinups were targeted at men (specifically soldiers and other male-oriented work, such as auto mechanics).

What Changed?
Today’s audience is more sexually open and a woman’s status in society is completely different, from what it used to be in the early part of the past century. Women are challenging the roles in sexual fantasies, in the way of actually playing them- we have the choice whether we want the role, or not. We’ve become consumers of sexual content and find it appealing to play the role of the sexual fantasy.

Men are still the majority consumer of men’s pornography (I use the term loosely), which basically means the research departments of these movies and magazines are doing their job well. But women are the majority of pinup consumption.

My Theory
When a man looks at a female pinup, she arouses sexual feelings in him. She’s only a picture and so he’s not committed to her in any way- she’s a sexual object and nothing more. When a woman looks at a female pinup, she may be aroused sexually but the questions of identity come into the mix. She may admire the woman in the picture, may want to be like her, may even feel actual empathy toward the woman in the situation.

So a woman looking at a typical Art Frahm piece (as shown to the left) may be thinking: “Poor thing!” or “Glad that’s physically impossible!”. A man looking at the same image may think: “Yeah!” or “Too bad that’s not physically possible!”


Damsel in Distress Vs. Sex Object
The above seems to explain fairly well why the damsel in distress scenario used to be so popular and somewhat disappeared today. It is a medieval term and personifies beliefs about women and men which are long gone. Even men’s magazines today portray the damsel in distress very differently, and there’s usually no hero involved.

It is generally said that women fantasize plot-lines and men fantasize the act of intercourse. This, of course, is a very general statement and changes from person to person, society to society, and era to era. If, in the 1950’s the damsel-in-distress’ garters were showing, this was explicit- a man’s fantasy. Today, however, the neo-pinup is usually posing, and although she’s usually still dressed, the clothes are very obviously fantasy-wear. The story-line has completely evaporated from the image. By the 1950’s standard, a neo-pinup is obviously pornography- by 2000’s standards, a neo-pinup is soft-core adult art, usually consumed by women.

Why Would a Woman Consume Another Women Depicted as a Sex Object?
Some theorists will say, women have been indoctrinated to act the role of men’s sexual fantasy. This is very possibly true and I ask this of myself, every day, while getting dressed. However, I can’t help but wonder about the validity of it all, when being sexually desirable is required for the continuation of the species, not to mention how much fun, us humans, have injected into this task of mere survival.

I come back to my theory that a woman looking at a female pinup would automatically be confronted with questions of identity. Most women want to be like the pinup in the picture and not just look like her. Neo-pinups are confident in their sexuality, and sometimes their cloths give enough detail for a woman to set a whole story behind the image.

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damsel_in_distress#Modern-era_damsels_in_distress
http://www.healthyplace.com/communities/Sex/sexpsych/sexual_fantasies/men_women_fantasies.htm

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